Cuomo’s Campaign-Finance Package to Include More Disclosure

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants New York to be a “progressive leader” in reforming its campaign-finance laws, he said in a radio interview Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking to public radio’s Karen DeWitt, Cuomo said he will unveil a package of reforms in his upcoming State of the State address that would require politically active groups not registerred in New York to more broadly disclose their donors.

“We’re going to work on a piece of legislation for next year that will part of the State of the State that rationalizes the entire system,” Cuomo said. “The JCOPE regulations I think were a good start; I think we need to go further. The attorney general’s jurisdiction is helpful; I think we need to go further.”

Cuomo said he wants to make sure any organization is covered by the state’s campaign-finance laws regardless of which state they are based.

“If it’s activity in the state of New York, I want it covered,” Cuomo said. “I don’t care if you’re registerred in New York or if you’re registerred in Timbuktu.”

More details would be laid out in his Jan. 9 speech, Cuomo said.

“I very much would like to see the state of New York be the progressive leader when it comes to campaign-finance reform, transparency, disclosure, public finance, limits—that’s going to be our goal,” he said.